Meridian Canoe Club

Hi all

As always i read the minutes of the last committee meeting with great interest.

I noticed that item 3 suggested that once a paddler had passed his/her assessment and became a lee valley card holder they would be less willing to support a club exclusive trip to the legacy course because "why would they go to a club session at £10/- when they can go for £5/-."

I for one would be more than willing "to shell" out a whole "£10" to go paddling with my friends ( thats £5 in real terms)

Brian

in the clubs interest if you have viewed this post please make some effort to reply to it

Brian,

Its great to hear that someone is reading the minutes.

regards
Mark

Brian,

Agreed - I'd much rather have exclusive use of LV to paddle with my buddies, while also getting the feel-good factor of helping other paddlers to develop.

Committee - we've brought a fair few paddlers into the club over the last year or so, many of whom wouldn't have thought to try LV or may be daunted by the assessment (which is very straightforward, as Giles will attest) or taking a swim. I think that we should go for an exclusive booking, even if only for an hour.

Would anyone else be happy to pay a £5 premium to get exclusive use to play with your mates for an hour? Let's get an idea of numbers to figure out whether this is viable.

Sam

The club sessions are well worth the few extra quid.
As has been pointed out, its an ideal place to have your first intro into ww after a couple of Yalding trips, people are scared of swimming, THERES NO NEED TO BE at LV, not only have I swam the whole thing many times, I've done every inch at some point upside down
I can't paddle at full pelt for two hours, so having a bit of a rest to help someone get their head round the place is no bother, and most of us will give guidance whenever we can on the water.
We need to start strong arming some of the newer paddlers into giving it a go, a bit like whats been done with polo.

There is always the option of pulling in paddlers from other clubs to make the numbers work.

May I suggest that we wait for the weather to break, the water at Lv is no warmer now than 2 months ago, not the best selling point to fill a club session.

Second bank holiday in May then? Surely it'll be warm enough then...

Brian wrote: I noticed that item 3 suggested that once a paddler had passed his/her assessment and became a lee valley card holder they would be less willing to support a club exclusive trip to the legacy course because "why would they go to a club session at £10/- when they can go for £5/-."

Leaving to one side the issue of club loyalty yadda yadda yadda, I should think for some/lots (??) of people this is absolutely true.
So what could be done to make club-only sessions attractive enough to make people want to pay the extra?
Personally I think the opportunity to paddle just with your friends is very appealing and of course for club members who've not done their assessment or who feel they're not yet ready to be assessed these sessions are their only access to the course.
Perhaps running more formal coaching sessions within club sessions would be an answer. There's tons of scope on the legacy for entry level, intermediate and advanced ww skills training, not to mention ww leadership and learning rescue skills of many kinds.
The main problem is time as generally I feel you want a two hour session if you're being coached on the course to get the most from it but I feel there's lots of scope to make club sessions attractive to everyone.
Giles

I should add I'm more than happy to offer my own services if required as an assessor, coach, whatever
Giles

OSB wrote:Second bank holiday in May then? Surely it'll be warm enough then...

Ever the optimist

I totally agree it's a bargain to pay the extra £5 to paddle with people you know and most of all will not feel so embarrassing to swim in front of your friends than to strangers.

I am also very happy to shell out the additional £5 to support the club's development of white water paddlers at LV.

Although it is a safe place to swim , it is cold, and quite tiring, and I personally would rather be in the hands of friends when I am swimming rather than be dependent upon the goodwill of strangers (albeit they are usually only too willing to help)

I found myself initially challenged on the Legacy and it is only now quite a few visits and a lot of coaching help from club members and others that I feel confident that I can handle the course.

I agree with Giles it would be great to run rescue (and other) training there to improve our skills .

As one the members with a few more grey hairs than others I often find that an hour is enough for me , and I need a break before I want to go round again. After all in a 1 hour session you are probably tackling more features there , than you would be in a month of river paddling at comparable grade.

Andy

Andy